When Patty Brown visited a for-profit facility housing migrant child in Homestead, Florida this month, she committed to bringing the issue to Haines.
“I know Haines has activists and people who think for themselves, and yes there are two sides for things…but I’m just wondering how any eight-year-old deserves to sleep on the floor with the lights burning with 300 other people” Brown said.
On Friday, Brown led a “Lights for Liberty” gathering in Tlingit Park, which was one of more than 600 demonstrations to “end human detention camps,” that took place on five continents from Juneau to Germany. For the Fourth of July Parade in Haines, Brown organized residents in a march, holding up signs that said “kids need kindness,” and “Alaskans Against Child Detention.”
She is motivated, she said, because “the idea that there are children peeled away from their parents-it’s a horror movie for me.”
Brown, who taught science and Spanish in Haines for 22 years, first became involved in the issue through her community of fellow-teachers. “It came to my attention through Mandy Manning who won the National Teacher of the Year Award in 2018.”
Manning teaches English language development for new refugees and immigrant students. As she accepted the teaching award from President Trump, Manning wore pins on her dress displaying her opposition to the Trump administration-a “Women’s March” pin, a “Trans Equality Now” pin. Afterwards, Manning handed him stacks of letters written by her students about being immigrants and refugees in the U.S.
In February Manning organized a teach-in at the El Paso Processing Center in Texas, which Brown attended, and since then, “I kind of just stayed on top of the issue,” said Brown.
When Brown heard about a group of teachers was traveling to the facility in Homestead, she jumped on the opportunity to accompany them. Homestead has the distinction of being the only privately owned and operated migrant shelter in the government’s extensive network of shelters along the country’s southwest border. Homestead is a 3,2000-bed facility owned by Caliburn International, a security consulting firm. It housed between 2,300 children as of the end of June, according to the New York Times.
“There always was a fence between us (and the kids),” said Brown. She and the other teachers called out to the kids from between a fence, “Estamos aqui para ustedes (we are here for you), somos sus abuelas (we are your grandmothers), los queremos (we love you). Some kids would say that too, say they love us.”
At Homestead, Brown was most surprised by the facility’s secrecy. “You’d see one guard tell another guard that we were coming, or they were just trying to ride you,” she said of guards following her and the other teachers.
“By the last few days I just was most worried about the 17-year-olds, because they are behind two layers of mesh fence, and you can never see or hear what’s going on. Knowing what this group knows, that on their 18th birthday they’re shackled and sent to jail and deported. They have no idea where their parents are, and their parents have no idea where they are. I just have no idea how anybody could think any good will come of this,” Brown said.
This article refers to the migrant processing facilities in El Paso and Homestead without calling them “detention centers.” In the beginning of July, the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services spokesman Mark Weber said that because these facilities are run by social service workers, and not law enforcement officials, the choice by some media outlets like the Miami Times and the Associated Press to call them “detention centers,” or refer to their actions as “detention,” is incorrect. *